Economics & Economy

Long-time mine workers on Minnesota's Iron Range often say they're used to the ups and downs, the booms and the busts of the notoriously cyclical mining industry. "I've been laid off seven times from KeeTac in 17 years," said Tony Drazenovich, 47, referring to the mine where he works, Keewatin Taconite, one of two Minnesota mines owned by U.S. Steel. "That's a lot of layoffs." But most of those layoffs were short, he said. And that's what he anticipated for this one, too, when he was laid off...

President-elect Donald Trump issued a series of tweets last night which went after Chuck Jones, a leader of the local steelworkers union in Indianapolis who has been critical of the deal Trump brokered with Carrier. We spoke with James Briggs of the Indianapolis Star to see how the city was reacting to the news. How the state of Indiana feels about Chuck Jones: Yeah, well I think Chuck Jones has a lot of support in Indianapolis, regardless of what people think of his politics. He's had a big...

The surgeon general issued a report today on kids, and e-cigarettes. The report calls e-cigarettes an emerging threat to the health of our youth. And they’re getting more popular by the day, with more high school students than adults using e-cigarettes. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says e-cigs hurt developing brains by affecting the capacity for attention and learning.

As the year comes to a close, there are some awards to be given out. Naturally, we all are familiar with the big ones for movies and music, but how about for money? Starting in 2004, the International Bank Note Society has handed out the award for “Bank Note of the Year”. Past winners have included Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, and a three year run for Kazakhstan. The United States has only scored a single nomination. James Tarmy is a reporter at Bloomberg whose most recent piece is titled “...

President-elect Trump made it official this morning: he’s picked an oil industry ally from Oklahoma to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Scott Pruitt is attorney general in Oklahoma, where he sued the EPA to challenge regulations on power plan emissions and oil and gas industry leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas. An oil CEO headed his re-election campaign. And Pruitt let a drilling company draft his correspondence to Washington. But where are market forces leading the energy industry,...